Construction Project Scheduling
Construction project scheduling can prove to be a complicated task, especially when deadlines are tight. What may seem like a straightforward process can quickly become so overbooked and complicated that it’s impossible to keep track of everything. When this happens, you might want to consider outsourcing your construction project schedule to a construction scheduling company. With industry-standard software, they will be able to assist you in all areas of your project management – from budgeting and detailed cost breakdowns, through creative procurement methods and estimating remaining work time. By outsourcing these complex tasks, you will avoid the headache in the long run.
The first step in any construction project is scheduling. A construction project schedule is one of the most important elements in any project, as it provides a clear, comprehensive plan for everyone involved to follow. The schedule outlines all of the different tasks that need to be performed in order to complete a job on time and the order that those tasks need to be completed in.
There are two main purposes for a construction project schedule:
1) It keeps everyone immersed in the project on the same page and working together towards a common goal and deadline; 2) It helps ensure accountability among workers by making sure that they understand their specific roles and responsibilities, as well as how theirs fits into the larger scheme of things.
The construction project schedule is broken into various phases with each phase having a major event or milestone that requires the whole project to be put on hold or halted while they are all completed before moving onto the next phase. These phases can be both long and short depending on the nature of the job. For large, complex jobs, such as a new building on campus, there may be several different stages or phases within the construction project schedule which need to be worked through carefully. Finally, when all of these phases have been completed to your satisfaction, you will have a construction project schedule that you can use as your guide throughout the rest of construction.
The first step in scheduling any construction project is getting organized. This means carefully planning out every person who will be involved in the construction project, as well as what their job roles and responsibilities will be. This can help you determine how long each phase of the project will take to complete and it will also help you figure out how long the entire construction project should take overall. Ideally, you would want to give everyone enough time to work through all phases of their job while still taking into account their individual needs. For example, a person who is working on site may want some time away from their desk so that they can get some much-needed downtime before beginning work again.
The second step in construction scheduling is determining how to schedule the job. There are three common ways to schedule construction projects:
1) A chronological scheduling method is the first choice for most people and it can be useful if there are no major changes that need to be accounted for in the project. With this method, you will work through the whole project from start to finish, going in order of importance and priority. It’s also a good idea to stagger each phase of the project so that they don’t all have to be completed at once. This way you can keep your workers on site while they are working instead of having them wait until later phases have been completed before moving forward with theirs as well. A common example of a chronological schedule would be a job where one phase needed to be completed in order to get the new building up and running so that they could move on to the next phase.
2) A phased scheduling method is often used if you have multiple different phases of the construction project that are all equally important but many of them do not need to be finished at the same time. In this case, you would complete each phase in order as they come up so that each individual part is completed before moving on to the next. This will allow for everyone on site to stay busy as long as possible and complete their individual tasks as efficiently as possible. A common example of a phased schedule would be a job where you do not need to work on the entire building at once but would rather complete each phase one by one. For example, if there were plumbing issues in certain areas of the building, you might create a construction project schedule that had four or five phases in total. The first phase would involve fixing the plumbing issues so that those areas could be used again, while the last phase might involve moving out of those rooms and into others.
3) A hybrid schedule method is often used for new construction projects where things can’t be predicted with 100% accuracy and where specific needs must be met before other parts of the project can begin. With a hybrid schedule, you divide the construction project into smaller phases and then only complete what you can right now. For example, if the electrical system is unreliable or your walls are not level, you might choose to postpone all of the other phases until those needs have been met. This method is best suited for major projects that have many different phases with lots of long lead times between them. A common example of a hybrid schedule would be a construction project where you want to build new offices but need to make sure that everything else is ready first before moving on to the next phase.
Once you have chosen which scheduling method you want to work with, you can begin creating your schedule. There are four steps that will help you create a construction project schedule:
The first step is to determine the specific tasks that need to be performed in order to complete the job. This includes deciding which phases of the construction project you would like to complete as well. You will want to list every person involved with each task so that you can assign them a specific job role and get an idea of how long each task should take.
Every individual who is working on the project should be assigned tasks that align with their level of experience and expertise, so that they can work at their highest level and efficiency. It’s also a good idea to create multiple work schedules so that you can assign different workers to specific days of the week or hours of the day.
The second step is to decide how long each task should take, as well as which worker will be assigned to it. You will also have to decide when each phase of the project needs to be completed by and whether or not there are any milestones in between where you cannot move forward until certain tasks have been completed.
The third step is to determine whether or not any deadlines need to be met along the way – even if those deadlines are just dates where you can’t move forward until a certain person has finished their part of the job.
Finally, you will need to create a construction project schedule for your entire construction project. By doing this, you can determine how much time it will take to complete all of the phases of the job and also how long it will take for each individual phase.Be sure to check if there are any changes that need to be made along the way and that everyone on site is still happy with their jobs.
This is information concerning construction projects and the planning involved in obtaining a sequence of steps that can be taken in pre-determined orderfor a specific object or event. Construction scheduling is an important part of an organization's overall planning process as well as usually being performed by a staff member.
Conclusion:
The main point of this article is that construction planning is an important part of the overall planning process and it involves a series of steps that can be taken in pre-determined order.
The following text was contributed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) on 1/28/08 which supports the above information:
Construction management entails taking a project through all the stages necessary to ensure that itis completed successfully.Unexpected problems may occur in any stage, but plans must be made to deal with such issues ina systematic manner, so accidents don't happen within the expectations and budget for a project.